Travel news: British travellers could face further chaos after Ryanair crews announce strike action

Spanish-based cabin crews at Ryanair yesterday introduced they had been planning to strike for 12 days this month to demand higher working situations.

The announcement got here on the ultimate day of the crews’ present strike, which started on Thursday and compelled Ryanair to cancel 10 flights in Spain on Saturday.

Cabin crew will strike on July 12-15, 18-21 and 25-28 throughout the ten Spanish airports the place Ryanair operates, the unions stated in a press release.

After months of delays, cancellations and lost luggage, the misery at airports looks set to continue as schools start breaking up for the summer holidays.

British Airways staff at Heathrow airport have also voted to strike after the airline failed to reinstate a ten per cent pay cut imposed during the pandemic.

The airline has provided a ten per cent one-off bonus however not a return to the identical pay as earlier than.

Flights from Heathrow had been additionally suspended for roughly an hour on Saturday afternoon afternoon as workers battled to repair a fuelling system failure.

Hundreds of passengers on the airport had been hit by delays attributable to a pc failure that left planes unable to refuel and “horrendous” scenes on the baggage reclaim space.

The disruption at UK airports has been blamed on workers shortages compounded by the brand new wave of Covid.

It comes as British Airways and Heathrow welcomed new measures to help airlines prevent last-minute flight cancellations over the summer.

Authorities rules will enable a one-off “amnesty” on airport slots guidelines, enabling airways to ship a extra life like summer season schedule with a view to minimising disruption at airports.

Airways will be capable to cancel flights with out being penalised for not utilizing their airport slot, however should finalise their summer season schedule by subsequent Friday.

It’s understood that flights cancelled or faraway from airline schedules after the Friday deadline won’t fall underneath the slot amnesty.

Slots are used to handle capability on the busiest airports, giving airways authorisation to take off or land at a selected airport at a specified time on a specified day.

Airways should use slots a certain quantity of occasions every season so as to preserve them, and this “amnesty” is giving them the leeway to place a extra manageable schedule in place with out the chance of dropping a slot on account of cancelling flights.

The UK Government is also quickening measures for security checks to be processed in order to plug staffing gaps.